


Schooling

by 123laura3215 (orphan_account)



Category: Starfighter (Comic)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-05-02
Updated: 2013-06-24
Packaged: 2017-12-10 04:29:29
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 1,820
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/781792
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/123laura3215
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>So uh, this is my other not-finished story but I changed it a decent amount. Other not-finished being the one of the same name on my fanfiction account... so uh, highschool AU I guess! Sort of.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

_Of the two in the face off, the bigger man was the one visibly shaking. He dragged a hand down his face, wiping the sweat off from his palms onto his pants._

“ _You can't be serious.”_

“ _Except I am.”_

There are only a few things you need to know about growing up. First of all, it sucks.

“ _You promised!”_

_The blonde shrugged, as if it wasn't a big deal._

“ _I lied”_

Secondly, it usually takes shape as a choice, and whoever runs the life business is all about making it easy for some, and insanely difficult for others. Either way, everyone takes the leap from child to adult.

_The larger man took a step forward, slowly, palms forward as if afraid that any sure movement would scare the other into sudden, drastic action._

“ _I won't let you do this. It's insanity.”_

_The blonde snorted derisively and tossed his hair back, careless, and looked at the other man straight in the eye, jaw set, and spoke with such certainty that not even a trained con artist would be able to tell if he was lying or not._

“ _This is the only way.”_

_The tremor in his hands was much less visible, but nonetheless present._

And finally, when you make the decision to take the leap, you must always be concious that there is a chance you won't make it across alive. Or that when you reach other side you'll wish you fell into the chasm between. It's a possibility; not a certainty, but always a possibility.

_One of the men on the outside cleared his throat, said it was time to go and earned a look from the larger of the two men in the middle of the room that, if looks could kill, would have vapourized him in an instant. He swung his gaze back to the blonde and said just one word:._

“ _Please.”_

_He had quite forgotten, it seemed, that this was a place where manners held no power._

So, this is a story about growing up, I guess. And this a story about taking a leap. But before we get to any of that, I have to ask you a question. Well, _the_ question, really. The one question everything always comes back to: 

Are you ready?


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chris - Keeler  
> James - Encke

In the quiet of the morning, you can hear just about everything. If you listen hard enough, you can hear the trees whispering to each other, spinning stories that are yet to be and others that have long since past, all just letters on a breeze. If you listen hard enough, you can hear last breaths being taken, the space between conciousness and blissful unawareness palpable and perfect for taking a final walk in. You can hear the stirring of the world coming to a wake. You can hear those greeting each other, kindness in the pre dawn light when no one could really see their faces, too blurry with sleep or too blurry with darkness. And you can hear two boys quietly zipping up all their possessions, then standing upright in the middle of their bedrooms when it's too early to wonder, but nevertheless wondering what was going to happen to them, and where they were heading, and really, what was the point of all this.

On this morning, two boys said goodbye to the buildings they had called home, without waking up the people inside because goodbyes were too hard, or not possible, or just unwanted awkwardness.

And in the quiet of that morning, the two boys headed to the same destination wore a sadness on their faces that the trees, upon getting wind of, quietly passed on the message that these two boys had outgrown their towns. And they told the story of every other boy and girl who'd done the same thing, and all of those who journeyed into adulthood when they left, as they'd prepared themselves to fail. 

So in the quiet of that morning, Chris said goodbye to the other people in the house, one last time at the front entrance where they smiled, unaware, frozen in time. And he tried very hard not to cry. Because that morning Chris left his home of 17 years with no intention of ever returning, and the morning had a bite to it that had nothing to do with the temperature.

And in the quiet of that morning, James left his home of two weeks to a new one that he would learn to hate more than he thought it was possible to hate something, and the morning had a chill to it that had everything to do with how he felt inside.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which James meets Chris.

You know when you see brochures for holidays, and they look so shiny and exotic that it makes you rationalise that spending your life savings on a few days in the brochure world would be totally worth it? And then when you get there it's a complete disappointment? James thought that that would be an accurate description of his life in that moment.

Except his parents picked out the brochure, and he never really wanted to go on holiday, especially not this kind. But then he went and won that scholarship by what felt, still feels, like a fluke there he was, on Earth – about as far away from the Colonies as you can get – standing in front of the gates of something they call a boarding school and finally understanding why my Granddad killed himself when his wife died and left him with nobody. But it was better this way, to be alone, the government appointed aunt too sweet, too kind, reminded him too much of his own mum and made his stomach churn with homesickness each time he saw her. Better to slip away in the quiet of the morning and face it alone, shorten the pain. Loneliness is just that much worse when you know there are other people out there, they're just unreachable.

So he took a breath. And another. And another. And then James let the gravitational pull of the place drag him forward, and he was doing pretty well, had almost gotten to the front door (James had never seen such a hostile looking door) when one of the kids chatting in the doorway flung out an arm and turned to sneer at him in a voice so nasty it would've made the Colterons look like fluffy bunnies: “Sorry, no faggots.”

The other boys in the bunch laughed idiotically behind him, some laughing at loud and other just smirking. But James had gotten this far, and wasn't about to give up that easi-

“God are you dumb as well? I said, no faggots”, the kid spun his finger around in a circle, motioning at James “move it, cocksucker.”

Fuck that. 

But before he could land the punch, a hand came out of nowhere and caught it, shortly followed by a long braid of blonde hair, and the only thing James could think was that there weren't meant to be any girls at this school. She turned to wink at James from the corner of her eye, and swung back around to face the group at the door.

"Now now, boys, we all know that I do all the cock sucking around here," at that she threw another wink at James, "and I've gotta say, Melville, your dad really needs to wash his more often. Got a bad smell going on down there."

James spluttered just as badly as Melville (who now had a name) at that, disbelieving that this braid swinging blonde could be so brave when she was so tiny, an easy target for a beating. Or maybe stupid was a better word for it. Then she turned to James and kissed him, full on the mouth, and James thought that, actually, this definitely wasn't a girl, because girls don't kiss like that, before breaking apart and flipping up her/his middle finger at the others, "catch you later sweeties!" and pulling James along, running straight through the other boys who stood there dumbfounded, too slow to react.  
They kept running until they made it far inside the building, and the strange boy pulled him around a corner, away from the other students milling around, chest heaving for breath while intermittently laughing and trying to stifle the sound. James found himself making weird noises, and at first he thought he was choking on something but then came to the understand he was choking on his own laughter.  
The other boy turned to him, eyes twinkling and held out his hand, struggling not to swallow air, half choking, half laughing out the word.  
"Chris"  
James stared at the hand as his own enveloped it, small and fragile like a sparrow, shaking it gently so as to not break it accidentally.  
"James."  
Chris grinned at him, pushing loose hair out of his face, so pale it was almost white. His smile was easy, and James found himself wanting to smile back. So he did. Felt weird after a solid month of frowning.   
It's a well known fact that adults, ill disguised children they may be, have an uncanny knack of turning up at inopportune moments. So it shouldn't have a been a huge surprise when the school principal came around the corner just as James was making what seemed like a friend. But it took him aback at the anger on his face – was this the beginning of a history of Earth social faux passes? Was he meant to just let himself get bullied? - until he realised it wasn't aimed at himself.   
“Christopher! Barely the first day and already the staff bathroom has been teepee'd! A months detention, beginning effective immediately.”   
Chris looked taken aback, placing his hand over his heart and leaned backwards.  
“But sir! I didn't do it!”  
“You wrote your name on the bathroom mirror with lipstick.”  
“Oh. Er. Guess I didn't think that through very well.”  
The principal glared and pointed down the corridor.  
“My office. Now.”  
 “Of course, sir. But can I suggest something to the new kid?”   
“I don't suppose me saying no would stop you?” Chris tapped the side of his nose and snapped his fingers at the principal.   
“And you say you don't understand me at all!” before snapping his attention back to James.  “Word of advice, friend. Don't teepee the bathroom and get caught. By all means, teepee it; just don't get caught.”   
“Leave. Now.”   
“See you later sir! Oh and James-”  
“I said leave!”  
“You might wanna work on that smile.” And with another wink, the boy by the name of Christopher was gone.  
The professor sighed heavily and pinched the bridge of his nose before glancing up at James.  
“Don't teepee the bathroom.”   
“No, Sir.”  
“Good. You can go”  
James thought he'd better visit the library; if he was gonna make friends, he'd better find out what exactly teepee meant.

**Author's Note:**

> Made the switch across as posting on ff.net is a complete headache, especially lately. Anyways, til next time!


End file.
